Jimmy Fallon 'devastated' by fallout from Donald Trump intervieww

'The Tonight Show' host Jimmy Fallon has admitted to being "devastated" by the backlash from his interview with Donald Trump in 2016.

Jimmy Fallon was "devastated" by the backlash from his interview with Donald Trump on 'The Tonight Show' last year.

Jimmy Fallon

The 42-year-old comedian invited the billionaire businessman onto the NBC programme in September 2016 during his campaign to replace Barack Obama as the US President - and Jimmy's on-air antics, including ruffling Trump's hair, led to him being widely criticised on social media.

Reflecting on the subsequent fallout from his interview, Jimmy said: "I go, I just can't read Twitter. Then I can't read the news. I can't read the internet."

Jimmy was accused by social media users of being overly-friendly towards Trump and failing to engage him on any meaningful issues.

Responding to those accusations, the TV host told the New York Times newspaper: "I didn't do it to humanise him. I almost did it to minimise him. I didn't think that would be a compliment: 'He did the thing that we all wanted to do.'"

Jimmy also admitted he regrets passing up the opportunity to address the controversy earlier.

He confessed: "I didn't talk about it, and I should have talked about it. I regret that."

By contrast, British star Harry Styles recently poked fun at the President during his week-long residency on 'The Late Late Show'.

As he walked out onto the stage, the 'Sign of the Times' hitmaker said: "Take a seat please ... a little more. Thank you. thank you, thank you. Loudest of the season!

"We've got a good one for you tonight, let's do what we do every night and talk about the news. Of course the big news of the day is that Donald Trump shared secret information with the Russians last week. The good news for Trump is that he has been named employee of the month by Russia!"